Monday, February 28, 2005

Raining Tarpon in Key West

Or Rainy Tarpon in Key West is more like it!
This morning, when I left the dock the sky was ugly dark with a promise that I would regret
leaving my rain coat in the other skiff. Well I got wet and several rain bands made sure that I would stay that way, cold butt, prune ass......wet.
The only good part was, we were rewarded for our stupidity with a good Tarpon of about 70lbs and we saw many Ta Poons rolling close to the boat. But just sniffen!
Tomorrow the sun will shine, the fish will be a jumpen, the O'l guide will be dried out and smiling..............mike

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Tarpon Spring Forward Key West

Well thats what happened with the first Tarpon We sorta hooked, then he about landed in the skiff and fell off before we could redrive the hook. A typical Tarpon excuse and thats why they are tuff and very fun.
The water temps are way up and inspite of a minnie cool front headed this way today, the temp forecasts are all in the upper 70s and thats a" gooood thing!"
All my guide pals in the last week have had better Tarpon action in the flats/river's on both Spinning tackle and fly rods.
We'll be back at them tomorrow and also wacken away at the Permit that have been showing
in better numbers also.........mike

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Key West Permit Fishing and Tarpon Two!

What a rush today we were blessed with a little warmer water temps and two Tarpon and a
Permit,........ and that ain't bad!
The first Tarpon ate a Mullet Plug at the boat and almost jumped aboard, woke everyone up and spilled the coffee, later on the flat, after spooken a few Barracudas, we found a big Permit about 28lbs that hit the live crab on the fly and smoked the little Shimano, just about emptied
the 10lb spool, big piggy.
The clouds ran us off the flats so we checked out a little Pompano spot and while I was showing the boys how to jig the hole, ofcourse I hook a Tarpon of 80-90 lbs on one of my weenie rods
and off to the races.
Great jumping Tarpon and a hour later , when he got over the flat and started for Texas, we
snapped him off, sat down and ate some cheese fries........mike

Monday, February 21, 2005

Fly Fishing Permit Some More

Someone's Gotta Do It, I mean we can have those sneaky Permit thinking their in the clear.
Today was beautiful, really one of those perfect late winter days on the flat, 75 degrees, sunny
12-15 mph ESE winds, low incoming tide.
And we found Permit tailing on the flats, slow easy fish, unspookable......cake.....well almost!
If we were throwing live crabs, 3 or 4 Easy! But we were tossing Merkin crab flys and Mr. Permit wasnt buying fake crabs today, thank you very much....... %#+ #en Permit!
We did get a nice Cobia on the fly rod and a few big Jacks following Sting Rays, couldnt resist
a yummy looking Merkin Fly, lots of Big Boy Barracudas too, but they were not on todays list.
Tomorrow we will start on the Permit flat again and look for some Tarpon latter in the day.
Weather should be super a water temps up a few more degrees...........mike

Office

Monday, February 14, 2005

Permit fishing Key West Flats

Glad to See You Again Mr. Permit, good break(up) in the water temps on the flats has brought some Permit back but, their not eating tube lures!
Swifty and I were west of Key West near Cottrell Key tossing tubes for Barracudas (his favorite target) and ran into about a dozen Big Permit and since we were without live crabs and Johnny doesnt fly fish, we decided to try to feed then yellow cuda tubes with predictable results....No bites.
Didnt matter to Swifty so we moved to a small channel and pulled Pompano and Bluefish and later we did manage to hook a few Cudas and a Blacktip Shark about 60lbs on a small Mylar jig.
He was quite a handful on 10lb test and Johnny always giggles like a cheerleader when he almost get spooled.
We have been using some IM8 Shakespear spinning rods that would be best discribed as Weenee rods.
But what fun to watch the bend just above the forgrip in a death defying curl.
Tomorrow we'll be looking for Permit and this time with a box full of crabs.......mike

Saturday, February 05, 2005

More Pompano on Fly and Cuda Reapply

No complaints about two dozen Pompano eating my Mylar Squid Flys, most go back after
providing lots of fun but, some prefer a hot butter bath in a black iron skillet!
Flyfishing for Pompano is great sport and after all, they are "minime" Permit and pull very hard.
We did hook and land a few more Bluefish up to 6lbs, and on a light fly rod or 4lb spinning rod
Blue's are a high speed handfull.
Then, were going through a Jack attack when, next cast a Barracuda about 12-14 lbs jumped on the Mylar Squid. Mr Cuda made a few great leaps and smoked the Fin-nor. We boated him and after snapping some photos of his big toof'es, slipped him back in the water
for a little nap.

Cobia and Permit on the flat are tomorrow's targets! mike